Residential and commercial properties are often beset by diverse species of animal pests. For example, rodents, such as mice and rats, are common pests that can cause significant damage to property and products, and can be disease carriers. Similarly, arthropods, such as insects including roaches and ants, can cause considerable property damage and can also be disease carriers. Rodents and insects can often coexist in the same environment, and many environments having a rodent infestation also have an insect infestation.
Despite the coexistence of rodents and insects, traditional pest control generally involves a separate treatment for attempting to control each pest. When traditional pest control formulations are set out, the types of active ingredients used to control one type of organism are typically different from those that will work for another type of organism. For example, bromadiolone is a common active ingredient for control of rodents, but it has no insecticidal properties. Similarly, pyrethroids are good examples of insecticides that have no rodenticidal performance.
The exclusive nature of these active ingredients can be problematic. For example, rodenticides may be consumed by roaches before rodents have a chance to consume them. In such situations, the roach population increases and there is no impact on the rodent population, so the infestation of both populations can actually become worse than it was prior to the attempted pest control intervention. The converse is also possible. Insect bait systems can attract and increase rodent populations because they are not harmful to rodents, and this results in both insect and rodent pest populations proliferating.
A third form of pest is terrestrial mollusks, such as slugs and snails, which are capable of extensively damaging plants including flowers, vegetables, and some trees and shrubs. Not only can terrestrial mollusks be quite damaging, existing baits designed to exterminate them often do not always perform well in the natural environments of mollusks, which is often permanently moist or frequently wet. Existing baits also sometimes lose their physical integrity under such circumstances or lose their efficacy upon prolonged exposure to moisture, sunlight, or both. In addition, many slugs and snails live in environments where damaging insects are also present. Further, some known molluscides, such as metaldehyde, are highly toxic to humans, to domestic pets, and to birds. Slugs and snails and baits for slugs and snails can also pose the same reciprocal problems as insecticides and rodenticides, i.e., slugs and snails may eat baits designed for other target pests, or the slug and snail baits may be eaten by other target pests or by non-target species. This is both a direct problem when pets or children directly eat slug and snail baits, and also is an indirect problem when the poisoned slugs or snails are themselves eaten by non-target species such as birds, small mammals, pets or even small children.
In addition, slugs and snails pose a significant problem in rodent bait stations. They are attracted to the bait station and may eat the rodenticide, reducing the amount of bait available for rodents. They may also physically block rodent bait stations and reduce access to the bait. Worst of all, slugs and snails may eat rodenticides, and then in turn be eaten by birds or non-target small mammals, domestic pets, or small children which can potentially result in human fatality.
Therefore, a need exists for improved pest control formulations which are capable of controlling multiple forms of pests, including rodents, insects, and terrestrial mollusks.